Polish YouTuber heats with 10 kilograms of discount Berlin doughnuts instead of wood pellets

A Polish YouTuber set out to find whether discounted bakery goods could heat a home more cheaply than wood pellets. Rather than working it out in a notebook, he tested it in a cast-iron stove, setting fire to 10 kilograms of fatty, sugary Berlin doughnuts bought from a bargain shelf. Although it sounds like an internet stunt, the experiment says much about energy prices in Eastern Europe and raises uncomfortable questions about food waste.

Why a YouTuber is suddenly heating with pastries

Marek Hoffmann, known online as “AdBuster”, lives in Poland and has spent years making videos featuring sometimes absurd tests of products and everyday life. This time, he chose a subject familiar to many households: heating has become expensive. Prices for wood, coal and pellets have risen sharply, especially across Central and Eastern Europe.

Polish supermarkets regularly apply major discounts to sweet pastries shortly before a traditional day of indulgence. Hoffmann based his idea on precisely this situation: if a box of Berlin doughnuts on offer costs less than a sack of pellets, could it be worthwhile as heating fuel?

His central question was: “Can the fat and sugar in discount bakery goods be used like a conventional energy source – and at what cost?”

To find out, he drove to a Lidl branch and cleared out the reduced bakery shelf. The resulting shop looked more suited to a carnival party than a fuel experiment.

10 kilograms of discount Berlin doughnuts versus wood pellets

His trolley ultimately contained 133 doughnuts, weighing 10 kilograms altogether. The total bill came to €2.85. That works out at roughly two cents for each Berlin doughnut. Compared with Polish wood-pellet prices, that is considerably cheaper.

In his video, Hoffmann compares two figures:

• 10 kilograms of Berlin doughnuts from a discount supermarket: €2.85
• 10 kilograms of wood pellets: noticeably more expensive, and substantially higher depending on the region

He says the precise pellet price depends on the local market, but makes clear that, during the discount period, the pastries cost significantly less per kilogram than conventional fuel. Only then does the idea begin to seem remotely “logical” – at least from a purely financial perspective.

Calories as heat: Berlin doughnuts nearly beat wood on paper

From a technical standpoint, the approach works because Berlin doughnuts are made largely from fat and sugar. Both are highly energy-dense substances that release considerable heat when burned.

According to the figures Hoffmann uses, the calorific value of the pastries is about 18.5 megajoules per kilogram. By comparison, typical wood briquettes achieve around 18.27 megajoules per kilogram.

Fuel	Calorific value (approx.)
Berlin doughnuts / fatty pastries	18.5 MJ/kg
Wood briquettes	18.27 MJ/kg

On paper, these fatty balls of dough therefore provide a similar amount of energy to compressed wood, and in some cases even slightly more. That is striking for a “fuel” taken from a bakery department – and explains why the stove experiment worked at all.

How the stove reacted to the Berlin doughnuts

For the practical test, the YouTuber used a cast-iron stove. He placed the Berlin doughnuts inside, lit them and recorded what happened. The result appears to have surprised even him.

“The Berlin doughnuts caught fire quickly, produced intense heat and kept the flames going for several hours.”

The key observations from the test were:

• The stove reached extremely high temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius.
• The Berlin doughnuts did not simply burn away quickly; they continued to smoulder and char for a long time.
• The fat in the dough created a sustained flame.
• The 10 kilograms of pastries burned for around five hours in total.

Hoffmann describes the figures as “impressive”. From a tinkerer’s perspective, the experiment was a success. From the perspective of a chimney sweep or environmental engineer, however, it is more of a nightmare, since the heating test initially says little about soot, odours, particulate matter and pollutants.

Between heating-cost shock and a guilty conscience

As the fire continued, the YouTuber’s focus shifted from technical amusement to a moral issue. In the video, he becomes increasingly uncomfortable with what he is doing: burning food while many people are cutting back and some do not know how they will get through the winter.

“Can anyone seriously celebrate the fact that pastries are cheaper in a stove than fuel – in a country where poverty and the energy crisis are growing side by side?”

He openly acknowledges that the thought of putting edible goods into flames troubles him, simply to win a price comparison. Even though the Berlin doughnuts were close to their use-by date and heavily discounted, the episode still leaves a bitter taste.

At the same time, the experiment illustrates how severely rising energy costs affect some households. In Poland, many families have traditionally heated their homes with coal, wood or pellets. These energy sources have become markedly more expensive during recent years of crisis. Some people are already turning to alternatives such as oats, maize or other agricultural products to keep their homes warm.

Energy crisis in Poland: when food becomes emergency heating

The supermarket-shelf case represents a broader trend. When people begin to view food as a cheap substitute fuel, something is no longer working in the energy system.

Several factors come together in Poland:

• Heavy reliance on fossil and solid fuels in private households
• In some cases, outdated boilers used for any kind of fuel
• Highly fluctuating energy prices since the recent years of crisis
• Lower average incomes than in Western Europe

If pastries, bread or other calorie-rich foods in supermarkets then become cheaper than pellets or briquettes, the temptation arises to “repurpose” them as energy sources. Technically, this can work, as the Berlin doughnut experiment demonstrates. Socially and environmentally, however, it is a warning sign.

How sensible is it – and is it even legal?

Viewed solely in energy terms, the experiment is understandable. Fat and sugar are excellent energy carriers. Many industrial by-products from food production are already used for energy, for example as biogas or in dedicated incineration facilities.

A domestic stove is a different matter. The main concerns are:

• Emissions: Burning products high in sugar and fat produces soot, particulate matter and potentially problematic compounds.
• Stove and chimney: Greasy deposits may clog flues and chimneys, increasing the risk of fire.
• Legal requirements: Regulations in many countries specify exactly which fuels may be used in domestic fireplaces and stoves.

In Germany, for example, most wood-burning stoves may only use approved fuels such as untreated wood, pellets or certain briquettes. Deep-fried baked goods clearly do not fall into this category. Anyone experimenting regardless risks problems with the chimney sweep and, in a serious incident, with their insurance provider.

What the case says about our view of energy and food

The Polish YouTuber’s main aim was to show how absurd certain price relationships have become. The fact that a discounted bag of sweet pastries can provide more heating energy per euro than standardised pellets feels like a joke turned into a calculation. That very absurdity generates clicks – and clearly strikes a nerve.

On the other hand, millions of tonnes of food are thrown away across Europe every year. Some of it is now professionally recovered for energy. Bakeries and food manufacturers deliberately send rejected goods to biogas plants or incineration facilities. Compared with this, an improvised stove in the living room appears to be a crude and risky quick fix.

For consumers, the story above all suggests one thing: heating bills can be reduced in more sensible ways, including insulation, efficient heating technology, smart thermostats or switching to modern heat pumps – rather than burning fast food and baked goods in the living room.

At the same time, the experiment underlines how closely energy and food markets are linked. Vegetable oils, grain and sugar can all be eaten, turned into fuel or burned. When energy prices rise sharply, these sectors are pushed into competition with one another. The YouTuber made that conflict visible with a mountain of discount Berlin doughnuts – spectacular, provocative and leaving a very bitter aftertaste.